INTRODUCTION

The double Lukan work and its reception have seldom been considered from an Egyptian or Alexandrian point of view. This is not surprising, on the one hand, as no episode of Luke-Acts happens in Egypt or in Alexandria, even if the Acts of the Apostles is the unique book in the New Testament to mention this city as place of origin (Acts 6:9; 18:24; 27:6; 28:11). However, the Lukan mention of the Alexandrian origin of Apollos (Acts 18:24)—and the precision of the Christian education he received in Alexandria according to the Codex Bezae (Acts 18:25)—have drawn considerable attention in historical research, and are often used for obtaining some clues about the obscure beginnings of Christianity in Alexandria. On the other hand, in the study of the early reception of Luke-Acts, Irenaeus generally gets the main attention of the scholars, because he is considered the first Christian author to give evidence of a common reading of Luke and Acts, as Andrew Gregory (2003: esp. 352) has demonstrated. Unfortunately, Gregory does not analyze the evidence of Clement of Alexandria in his monograph, probably simply because Clement dates to a bit later than Irenaeus. Clement's evidence of the Lukan Gospel has been carefully noted, particularly in the recent monograph by Carl Cosaert (2008), but not his quotations or allusions to the Lukan Acts.

At least three elements should lead one to consider or to reconsider the Acts of the Apostles from an Egyptian point of view. First, among the eleven earliest manuscripts of the Acts of the Apostles, nine come from Egypt.